South Asian art continues to grow in prominence via landmark exhibitions and sales both in the region and afar, a phenomenon that is reflected at the India Art Fair (IAF) in New Delhi, whose 17th edition (5-8 February) will be its largest yet, with 87 galleries.
“This year marks an important step in building new bridges for South Asian art—taking its talent to the world,” says Jaya Asokan, the director of IAF. “South Asian art is entering a new moment of possibility, and we are proud to have supported its evolution throughout the fair’s 17-year legacy.”
Asokan references how the fair has acted over the years as a crucible for many of the region’s artists, some of whom are now headlining major exhibitions. Among those is India’s third national pavilion at the Venice Biennale, whose existence is a notable achievement considering India’s sporadic presence at the biennial. Curated by Amin Jaffer and co-organised by Ashvin Rajagopalan, the exhibition will feature five artists: Skarma Sonam Tashi, Sumakshi Singh, Alwar Balasubramaniam, Ranjani Shettar and Asim Waqif, almost all of whom have shown solo presentations or commissions at the fair. Sonam Tashi, a Ladakhi artist, came to wider attention after he created an outdoor rock sculpture on the fair grounds during its 2024 edition, while Waqif, a prominent artist based in New Delhi, has exhibited numerous times at IAF, most recently creating a scrap-metal sculpture for the fair’s outdoor commission last year.
It feels like I’m sitting in a different world to when I began ten years agoAnubhav Nath, founder, Ojas Art
The ministry of culture had initially announced that the national pavilion at Venice would be dedicated to the abundant but marginalised Indigenous artistic practices in the country. While the Venice exhibition’s focus has shifted, Indigenous art continues to grow in recognition domestically, thanks in part to increasing focus by the government initiatives aiming to uplift rural communities and their artforms. In October last year, the exhibition Silent Conversation: From Margins to the Centre was opened by the former president of India, Ram Nath Kovind, at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. It featured 50 artists living in states that hold tiger reserves, and included paintings by Gond, Warli and Saura, among others.
Reflecting Indigenous Indian art’s growing institutional prominence, as well as the growth of the market for various tribal art categories, several stands at IAF will focus on these practices. Gallery Ragini presents wooden sculptures from the village of Thammampatti in the interiors of Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, Inherited Arts Forum, a collaborative platform founded by the directors of the New Delhi galleries Blueprint 12 and Exhibit 320, will show a group presentation on Indigenous practices.
Educated audience
At the centre of the growing appreciation of tribal art is the New Delhi gallery Ojas Art, one of the key drivers in developing an educated commercial audience about this often-misaligned category. The gallery was founded in 2015 by Anubhav Nath, the same year he began an annual prize for tribal art in association with the Jaipur Literary Festival. “There is massive traction right now; it feels like I’m sitting in a different world to when I began ten years ago,” Nath says. “Post-Covid, many American museums began to take a greater interest in Indigenous art. And the prices for this art are still so low that institutional curators can purchase the works with their discretionary funds.”
Ojas will this year show a three-generation stand of Warli artists—Jivya Soma Mashe, Rajesh C. Vangad, Mayur & Tushar Vayeda—along with Belgur Mandavi and Pisadu Ram Mandavi, two artists from Chhattisgarh state who were discovered at Bharat Bhavan, a hugely influential state-sponsored programme to find and train artists from India’s secluded tribes.
The fair’s longstanding performance programme will this year enjoy close association with South Asia’s leading contemporary art exhibition, the Kochi -Muziris Biennale. The sixth edition (until 31 March) is curated by the performance artist Nikhil Chopra and his Goa-based artist collective HH Art Spaces, who will curate the performance programme at IAF. The centrepiece will be Breakfast in a Blizzard, an open-air kitchen-island installation “conceived as a gesture of care and sustenance, where invited artists ‘cook’ an all-day breakfast through sound, movement and improvisation”, according to a release. It will be led by the artists Yuko Kaseki, Uriel Barthélémi and Suman Sridhar/The Black Mamba. India’s performance-art practitioners have long used the fair as a platform, taking advantage of the event’s extraordinary participation numbers.
•India Art Fair, NSIC Exhibition Grounds, Okhla, New Delhi, 5-8 February
